Nehemiah 12:10-11

The lists of the high-priests in 1 Chronicles 6:3-15 concluded with Jehozadak, who -went into captivity when the Lord carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar." Jehozadak's son was Jeshua (see Ezra 3:1), who returned from the captivity with Zerubbabel. The present list of the high-priesthood follows directly upon that given in 1 Chronicles 6.

Joiakim From the special mention of this high-priest in Nehemiah 12:12; Nehemiah 12:26, we may conjecture that during his tenure of office the houses of the priests and Levites were registered or reconstituted.

Eliashib The high-priest in Nehemiah's period of governorship (Nehemiah 3:1; Nehemiah 13:4; Nehemiah 13:7; Nehemiah 13:28). His son Joiada, who is called Juda by Josephus (Ant. xi. 7. 1), is mentioned again in Nehemiah 13:28. A slight difficulty is presented by the name Jonathan. In Nehemiah 12:22, we find -Johanan" stands between -Joiada" and -Jaddua;" and in Nehemiah 12:23, this Johanan is called the son of Eliashib. We must either suppose that Jonathan is here a mistake for Johanan, or that -Jonathan" was high-priest for a short period, and was succeeded by his better known brother Johanan.

Jaddua There is no reason to doubt that this is the same Jaddua, who was high-priest at the time that Alexander passed along the borders of Palestine on his march into Egypt. The probably legendary account of Alexander's visit to Jerusalem, and his meeting with the high-priest Jaddua, attended by the priests in their most splendid robes, is narrated by Josephus (Ant.xi. 8. 5).

The occurrence of Jaddua's name shows that the compilation of these books must be later than 340 333 b.c.

Between Eliashib (Nehemiah 13:28) who was high-priest in 432 b.c. and Jaddua who was high-priest in 333 b.c. there are thus only two names, or at the most three, recorded in this list, i.e. Joiada, Johanan or (? and) Jonathan.